CVE-2023-38497: Cargo Cargo Not Respecting Umask When Vulnerability

HIGH
Advisory Identifier: GHSA-j3xp-wfr4-hx87
CVSS 7.9
CWE-732 CWE-278
Published
Advisory Summary

CVE-2023-38497 is a HIGH (CVSS 7.9) cargo not respecting umask when vulnerability (CWE-732: Incorrect Permission Assignment for Critical Resource) affecting Cargo libraries in the crates.io ecosystem. The issue involves cargo not respecting umask when extracting crate archives. Remediation is available by upgrading affected packages to version 0.72.2.

CVE-2023-38497 at a Glance

CVE Identifier CVE-2023-38497
GHSA Identifier GHSA-j3xp-wfr4-hx87
Severity HIGH
CVSS v3.1 Base Score 7.9
CWE Classification CWE-732: Incorrect Permission Assignment for Critical Resource
Affected Product Cargo
Package Ecosystem crates.io
Published Date
Last Updated

Security Impact

CVSS: 7.9

The security impact metrics below are parsed directly from the CVSS v3.1 vector string (CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:N).

Attack Vector Local (AV:L)
Attack Complexity Low (AC:L)
Privileges Required Low (PR:L)
User Interaction Required (UI:R)
Scope Changed (S:C)
Confidentiality High (C:H)
Integrity High (I:H)
Availability None (A:N)

How to Fix CVE-2023-38497

To remediate this vulnerability, upgrade all affected Cargo dependencies to a patched release. Both direct and transitive dependencies should be checked, as frameworks or security libraries may pull in vulnerable versions transitively.

cargo fixed: 0.72.2
Upgrade cargo to 0.72.2
Verify Direct and Transitive Dependencies

Run the following command in your project directory to verify that all resolved dependencies use the patched release:

inspect dependencies for cargo

How to Check if You Are Affected

To determine whether your application is affected by CVE-2023-38497, inspect your project dependencies for Cargo:

inspect dependencies for cargo

Analyze the terminal output to locate any version of Cargo in your dependency tree. If any resolved version matches the vulnerable ranges listed in the table below (for example, versions earlier than 0.72.2), your application is affected.

Note: Verify declared build manifests and deployed runtime container environments.

Technical Details

Vulnerability Mechanism & Technical Analysis

This vulnerability is classified under CWE-732: Incorrect Permission Assignment for Critical Resource, where the product specifies permissions for a security-critical resource in a way that allows that resource to be read or modified by unintended actors. In Cargo, software state validation or input boundaries are circumvented during processing. Review the official source advisory statement below for specific affected components, classes, and reproduction details.

Source Advisory Statement

The Rust Security Response WG was notified that Cargo did not respect the umask when extracting crate archives on UNIX-like systems. If the user downloaded a crate containing files writeable by any local user, another local user could exploit this to change the source code compiled and executed by the current user. This vulnerability has been assigned CVE-2023-38497. ## Overview In UNIX-like systems, each file has three sets of permissions: for the user owning the file, for the group owning the file, and for all other local users. The "[umask][1]" is configured on most systems to limit those permissions during file creation, removing dangerous ones. For example, the default umask on macOS and most Linux distributions only allow the user owning a file to write to it, preventing the group owning it or other local users from doing the same. When a dependency is downloaded by Cargo, its source code has to be extracted on disk to allow the Rust compiler to read as part of the build. To improve performance, this extraction only happens the first time a dependency is used, caching the pre-extracted files for future invocations. Unfortunately, it was discovered that Cargo did not respect the umask during extraction, and propagated the permissions stored in the crate archive as-is. If an archive contained files writeable by any user on the system (and the system configuration didn't prevent writes through other security measures), another local user on the system could replace or tweak the source code of a dependency, potentially achieving code execution the next time the project is compiled. ## Affected Versions All Rust versions before 1.71.1 on UNIX-like systems (like macOS and Linux) are affected. Note that additional system-dependent security measures configured on the local system might prevent the vulnerability from being exploited. Users on Windows and other non-UNIX-like systems are not affected. ## Mitigations We recommend all users to update to Rust 1.71.1, which will be released later today, as it fixes the vulnerability by respecting the umask when extracting crate archives. If you build your own toolchain, patches for 1.71.0 source tarballs are [available here][2]. To prevent existing cached extractions from being exploitable, the Cargo binary included in Rust 1.71.1 or later will purge the caches it tries to access if they were generated by older Cargo versions. If you cannot update to Rust 1.71.1, we recommend configuring your system to prevent other local users from accessing the Cargo directory, usually located in `~/.cargo`: ``` chmod go= ~/.cargo ``` ## Acknowledgments We want to thank Addison Crump for responsibly disclosing this to us according to the [Rust security policy][3]. We also want to thank the members of the Rust project who helped us disclose the vulnerability: Weihang Lo for developing the fix; Eric Huss for reviewing the fix; Pietro Albini for writing this advisory; Pietro Albini, Manish Goregaokar and Josh Stone for coordinating this disclosure; Josh Triplett, Arlo Siemen, Scott Schafer, and Jacob Finkelman for advising during the disclosure. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umask [2]: https://github.com/rust-lang/wg-security-response/tree/main/patches/CVE-2023-38497 [3]: https://www.rust-lang.org/policies/security

CVE-2023-38497 Affected Cargo Versions

1 component(s)
Fixed Versions:
0.72.2
Product / Package Ecosystem Affected Versions Fixed Version
cargo
crates.io
< 0.72.2
0.72.2

References

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2023-38497?
CVE-2023-38497 is a security vulnerability in Cargo involving Cargo not respecting umask when extracting crate archives under CWE-732: Incorrect Permission Assignment for Critical Resource.
Which Cargo versions are affected?
Affected versions include releases prior to 0.72.2 across affected packages: cargo.
What version fixes CVE-2023-38497?
Upgrading to 0.72.2 (or the latest patched release for your respective branch) resolves the vulnerability.
Is cargo affected?
Yes, cargo is affected in releases prior to 0.72.2. Upgrade your dependency to 0.72.2 or later.
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2023-38497?
CVE-2023-38497 has a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.9 (HIGH) with vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:N.
What CWE is associated with CVE-2023-38497?
CVE-2023-38497 is classified under CWE-732: Incorrect Permission Assignment for Critical Resource (The product specifies permissions for a security-critical resource in a way that allows that resource to be read or modified by unintended actors.).
How can I check crates.io dependencies for CVE-2023-38497?
Run the dependency tree command: 'inspect dependencies for cargo'. This command lists direct and transitive dependencies in your build configuration so you can verify if a vulnerable version is resolved.
Machine-readable OSV JSON OSV v1.5 Schema
Normalized schema output
{
  "schema_version" : "1.4.0",
  "id" : "GHSA-j3xp-wfr4-hx87",
  "modified" : "2023-08-03T16:30:52Z",
  "published" : "2023-08-03T16:30:52Z",
  "aliases" : [ "CVE-2023-38497" ],
  "summary" : "Cargo not respecting umask when extracting crate archives",
  "details" : "The Rust Security Response WG was notified that Cargo did not respect the umask when extracting crate archives on UNIX-like systems. If the user downloaded a crate containing files writeable by any local user, another local user could exploit this to change the source code compiled and executed by the current user.\n\nThis vulnerability has been assigned CVE-2023-38497.\n\n## Overview\n\nIn UNIX-like systems, each file has three sets of permissions: for the user owning the file, for the group owning the file, and for all other local users. The \"[umask][1]\" is configured on most systems to limit those permissions during file creation, removing dangerous ones. For example, the default umask on macOS and most Linux distributions only allow the user owning a file to write to it, preventing the group owning it or other local users from doing the same.\n\nWhen a dependency is downloaded by Cargo, its source code has to be extracted on disk to allow the Rust compiler to read as part of the build. To improve performance, this extraction only happens the first time a dependency is used, caching the pre-extracted files for future invocations.\n\nUnfortunately, it was discovered that Cargo did not respect the umask during extraction, and propagated the permissions stored in the crate archive as-is. If an archive contained files writeable by any user on the system (and the system configuration didn't prevent writes through other security measures), another local user on the system could replace or tweak the source code of a dependency, potentially achieving code execution the next time the project is compiled.\n\n## Affected Versions\n\nAll Rust versions before 1.71.1 on UNIX-like systems (like macOS and Linux) are affected. Note that additional system-dependent security measures configured on the local system might prevent the vulnerability from being exploited.\n\nUsers on Windows and other non-UNIX-like systems are not affected.\n\n## Mitigations\n\nWe recommend all users to update to Rust 1.71.1, which will be released later today, as it fixes the vulnerability by respecting the umask when extracting crate archives. If you build your own toolchain, patches for 1.71.0 source tarballs are [available here][2].\n\nTo prevent existing cached extractions from being exploitable, the Cargo binary included in Rust 1.71.1 or later will purge the caches it tries to access if they were generated by older Cargo versions.\n\nIf you cannot update to Rust 1.71.1, we recommend configuring your system to prevent other local users from accessing the Cargo directory, usually located in `~/.cargo`:\n\n```\nchmod go= ~/.cargo\n```\n\n## Acknowledgments\n\nWe want to thank Addison Crump for responsibly disclosing this to us according to the [Rust security policy][3].\n\nWe also want to thank the members of the Rust project who helped us disclose the vulnerability: Weihang Lo for developing the fix; Eric Huss for reviewing the fix; Pietro Albini for writing this advisory; Pietro Albini, Manish Goregaokar and Josh Stone for coordinating this disclosure; Josh Triplett, Arlo Siemen, Scott Schafer, and Jacob Finkelman for advising during the disclosure.\n\n[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umask\n[2]: https://github.com/rust-lang/wg-security-response/tree/main/patches/CVE-2023-38497\n[3]: https://www.rust-lang.org/policies/security",
  "severity" : [ {
    "type" : "CVSS_V3",
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  } ],
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    "database_specific" : {
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  "references" : [ {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/rust-lang/cargo/security/advisories/GHSA-j3xp-wfr4-hx87"
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    "type" : "ADVISORY",
    "url" : "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-38497"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/rust-lang/cargo/pull/12443"
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    "type" : "WEB",
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  }, {
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  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce@lists.fedoraproject.org/message/QGKE6PGM4HIQUHPJRBQAHMELINSGN4H4"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce@lists.fedoraproject.org/message/QMEXGUGPW5OBSQA6URTBNDSU3RAEFOZ4"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://www.rust-lang.org/policies/security"
  } ],
  "database_specific" : {
    "cwe_ids" : [ "CWE-278", "CWE-732" ],
    "severity" : "HIGH",
    "github_reviewed" : true,
    "github_reviewed_at" : "2023-08-03T16:30:52Z",
    "nvd_published_at" : "2023-08-04T16:15:10Z"
  }
}